Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Pius XI Christian Marriage completed.
I will be compiling all the installments together soon, and the last section I wrote will actually be the introduction, as I believe that would be most fitting.
I will be compiling all the installments together soon, and the last section I wrote will actually be the introduction, as I believe that would be most fitting.
Papal Wisdom: Pius XI Casti Conubii Part 4a:
Moving Forward, the Divine Plan of marriage
Here Pius XI applies the age old consistent principle that anyone can complain about a problem, but that complaint is worthless unless concrete solutions are put forward. We are all great at diagnosing problems, indeed, God gave us our reason and intellect for such diagnosis. Yet what separates knowledge and wisdom is how that intellect is applied. One may have the knowledge to detect a problem, but not the wisdom to fix it. In order to acquire that wisdom on marriage however, we must submit ourselves to the Divine Plan for that institution. What is the Divine plan?
The first part of understanding the divine plan for marriage is understanding who is the author of that plan. The author is either God or the State. Yet marriage existed before the creation of the State, so that rules the State out of being it's author, since you cannot be the author of something that existed before yourself. It is normally a good rule of thumb to respect those things that came before you. For the Christian, this means entrusting marriage not to the whims of the State, but to that of God. For if God is the author of marriage, then he also knows what the best path of marriage is, even when things do get rough. The state cannot keep a marriage together, for it is powerless to do so. Yet a trust in God can keep a marriage together.
In anything we do, our pride and the seeking of the easy way out constantly gets in the way. Adam could've followed God's plan, but he wanted to do things his way. Likewise the Jews of Christ time, so caught up in the issues of the temporal sphere (expecting their Messiah to be a Roman conqueror), looked to that which was temporal, rather than that which was eternal. In today's modern world, success is God. Therefore, anything that can give success, no matter what the consequences or duration, one seeks. The only problem is a short term fix does not entail a long term solution.
The Christian is not made for this world. The Christian is made primarily for heaven. Therefore, since we seek heaven, we should seek the ways of He who gets us to heaven, and that is God. To follow His ways is the path to true sucess. God created us to know Him, to love Him, and to spend eternity with Him. Therefore, if people turn to Him for help, He shall give them the help needed. These foundations must be recognized, as the only way a marriage will survive, is if we turn to God for help in securing that marriage.
While certain basic truths about marriage we can know just from simple reason (such as the author or marriage, the State's role in marriage, etc) these truths point to a higher reality, the true blessings of marriage and the full teaching on it, which is safegaurded by the Church. God gives man reason and intellect to find Him. Once He is found, the person recognizes that to safegaurd these truths, God put a church in place. In the context of marriage, it would be only fitting that we seek the wisdom of the Church. The church itself is in a marriage, to that of her Divine Husband Jesus Christ. Since both husband and wife in marriage seek to conform themselves daily more and more to the will of Jesus Christ, who better knows the ways of a husband than his spouse?
It is on this note that we conclude our study on Christian marriage. Marriage, like most of the Christian teaching, is so simple a child at the age of reason could comprehend it, and so complex theologians can garner rich information from those simple truths until the end of this world. Let those who prepare to enter marriage examine these truths. And hopefully this study shall help them in doing so.
Moving Forward, the Divine Plan of marriage
It is then fitting that, with all fatherly solicitude, We should turn Our mind to seek out suitable remedies whereby those most detestable abuses which We have mentioned, may be removed, and everywhere marriage may again be revealed.
Here Pius XI applies the age old consistent principle that anyone can complain about a problem, but that complaint is worthless unless concrete solutions are put forward. We are all great at diagnosing problems, indeed, God gave us our reason and intellect for such diagnosis. Yet what separates knowledge and wisdom is how that intellect is applied. One may have the knowledge to detect a problem, but not the wisdom to fix it. In order to acquire that wisdom on marriage however, we must submit ourselves to the Divine Plan for that institution. What is the Divine plan?
Wherefore, Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo Xlll, attacked the doctrine of the naturalists in these words: "It is a divinely appointed law that whatsoever things are constituted by God, the Author of nature, these we find the more useful and salutary, the more they remain in their natural state, unimpaired and unchanged; inasmuch as God, the Creator of all things, intimately knows what is suited to the constitution and the preservation of each, and by his will and mind has so ordained all this that each may duly achieve its purpose. But if the boldness and wickedness of men change and disturb this order of things, so providentially disposed, then, indeed, things so wonderfully ordained, will begin to be injurious, or will cease to be beneficial, either because, in the change, they have lost their power to benefit, or because God Himself is thus pleased to draw down chastisement on the pride and presumption of men."
The first part of understanding the divine plan for marriage is understanding who is the author of that plan. The author is either God or the State. Yet marriage existed before the creation of the State, so that rules the State out of being it's author, since you cannot be the author of something that existed before yourself. It is normally a good rule of thumb to respect those things that came before you. For the Christian, this means entrusting marriage not to the whims of the State, but to that of God. For if God is the author of marriage, then he also knows what the best path of marriage is, even when things do get rough. The state cannot keep a marriage together, for it is powerless to do so. Yet a trust in God can keep a marriage together.
Wherefore, since the chief obstacle to this study is the power of unbridled lust, which indeed is the most potent cause of sinning against the sacred laws of matrimony, and since man cannot hold in check his passions, unless he first subject himself to God, this must be his primary endeavor, in accordance with the plan divinely ordained. For it is a sacred ordinance that whoever shall have first subjected himself to God will, by the aid of divine grace, be glad to subject to himself his own passions and concupiscence; while he who is a rebel against God will, to his sorrow, experience within himself the violent rebellion of his worst passions.
In anything we do, our pride and the seeking of the easy way out constantly gets in the way. Adam could've followed God's plan, but he wanted to do things his way. Likewise the Jews of Christ time, so caught up in the issues of the temporal sphere (expecting their Messiah to be a Roman conqueror), looked to that which was temporal, rather than that which was eternal. In today's modern world, success is God. Therefore, anything that can give success, no matter what the consequences or duration, one seeks. The only problem is a short term fix does not entail a long term solution.
The Christian is not made for this world. The Christian is made primarily for heaven. Therefore, since we seek heaven, we should seek the ways of He who gets us to heaven, and that is God. To follow His ways is the path to true sucess. God created us to know Him, to love Him, and to spend eternity with Him. Therefore, if people turn to Him for help, He shall give them the help needed. These foundations must be recognized, as the only way a marriage will survive, is if we turn to God for help in securing that marriage.
On this account, in order that no falsification or corruption of the divine law but a true genuine knowledge of it may enlighten the minds of men and guide their conduct, it is necessary that a filial and humble obedience towards the Church should be combined with devotedness to God and the desire of submitting to Him.
While certain basic truths about marriage we can know just from simple reason (such as the author or marriage, the State's role in marriage, etc) these truths point to a higher reality, the true blessings of marriage and the full teaching on it, which is safegaurded by the Church. God gives man reason and intellect to find Him. Once He is found, the person recognizes that to safegaurd these truths, God put a church in place. In the context of marriage, it would be only fitting that we seek the wisdom of the Church. The church itself is in a marriage, to that of her Divine Husband Jesus Christ. Since both husband and wife in marriage seek to conform themselves daily more and more to the will of Jesus Christ, who better knows the ways of a husband than his spouse?
Let then, those who are about to enter on married life, approach that state well disposed and well prepared, so that they will be able, as far as they can, to help each other in sustaining the vicissitudes of life, and yet more in attending to their eternal salvation and in forming the inner man unto the fullness of the age of Christ.
It is on this note that we conclude our study on Christian marriage. Marriage, like most of the Christian teaching, is so simple a child at the age of reason could comprehend it, and so complex theologians can garner rich information from those simple truths until the end of this world. Let those who prepare to enter marriage examine these truths. And hopefully this study shall help them in doing so.
